System for displaying a three-dimensional landmark

ABSTRACT

A system and method for processing a 3-dimensional landmark providing a 3-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional real world object located at a predefined geographic location is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a data set containing the 3-dimensional landmark, determining a largest continuous horizontal surface of the 3-dimensional landmark, and storing the determined largest horizontal surface as road traffic area of a road network used by a user when moving on the object.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Priority Claim

This application claims the benefit of priority from European PatentApplication EP 11 172 910.9 filed on Jul. 6, 2011 and European PatentApplication 11 175 431.3 filed on Jul. 26, 2011, both of which areincorporated by reference in their entirety.

2. Technical Field

The present invention relates to navigation systems and morespecifically to systems for displaying a three dimensional landmark on anavigation system.

3. Related Art

Navigation systems provide driving recommendations to a user-defineddestination. The navigation system, after having calculated the route tothe desired destination, may display a two-dimensional bird's eye viewmap, the map indicating the road network in which the recommended routeis somehow highlighted to the driver. This highlighting may be shown bydisplaying a line with a certain color in the road network.

Instead of displaying a two-dimensional map view, it is also possiblethat the navigation system displays 3-dimensional route guidanceinformation which gives the driver a better impression of the vehiclesurroundings. The database containing the map data can additionallycontain 3-dimensional landmarks providing a 3-dimensional representationof a 3-dimensional real world object. An example for such a landmark isa 3-dimensional representation in the map data of famous monuments, suchas the Golden Gate Bridge or the Tower Bridge. Another example could bea famous city gate.

These 3-dimensional landmarks are sometimes part of the road surfaceused by a vehicle for driving on or by a pedestrian for walking on. Thedata set providing the 3-dimensional landmark, however, does not containinformation which part of the landmark is used for driving. As aconsequence, it is not possible to include the 3-dimensional landmarkinto the display of 3-dimensional route guidance information when thelandmark is part of the driving route.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become,apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the followingfigures and detailed description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features and advantages be included withinthis description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protectedby the following claims.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, a need exists to provide a possibility to include a3-dimensional landmark into a display of a 3-dimensional route guidancerecommendation. According to a first aspect, a method for processing a3-dimensional landmark providing a 3-dimensional representation of areal world object located at a predefined geographic location isprovided. A data set may be provided containing the 3-dimensionallandmark and in the data set a largest continuous horizontal surface ofthe 3-dimensional landmark is determined and stored as a road trafficarea of a road network used by a user when moving on the object. Bydetermining the part of the 3-dimensional landmark which is used as aroad traffic area for moving on the object and by storing this roadtraffic area as road traffic area, it is later on possible toincorporate the 3-dimensional landmark into a 3-dimensional routeguidance information as part of the route. With the identification andstoring of the road traffic area in the 3-dimensional landmark, thelandmark can be used as part of the road network for routing.

The 3-dimensional landmark may be a famous bridge; however, it is alsopossible that the landmark is any other 3-dimensional object which ispart of the road network, such as a city gate through which roads pass.The user may be a pedestrian or may be a vehicle driver driving in avehicle.

The data set containing the 3-dimensional landmark can contain an arrayof vertices defining different faces of the real world object, the dataset furthermore containing normal vectors for the different faces. Thelargest continuous horizontal surface can then be determined bycomparing the normal vectors of the different faces and by identifying,among the normal vectors of the 3-dimensional landmark, first normalvectors that have a vertical orientation and that represent neighboringhorizontal faces. When the horizontal faces belonging to the identifiedfirst normal vectors are identified, the largest horizontal surface ofthe 3-dimensional landmark is found. The orientation of the3-dimensional landmark for displaying the 3-dimensional landmark isknown so that the directions up, down, left and right for the landmarkare known. The normal vectors may be identified that have a verticalupward orientation. With the upward orientation, it can be made surethat the determined largest continuous horizontal surface is facingupwards and not downwards towards the earth. Furthermore, it is possiblethat the data set of the landmark is processed from the top end to thebottom end to identify the largest continuous horizontal surface.

According to an example, a system may be configured to process the3-dimensional landmark as mentioned above, the system may include adatabase containing at least a data set containing the 3-dimensionallandmark and containing map data representing a road network used by avehicle for driving or by the pedestrian for walking. Furthermore, animage data processing unit is provided processing the 3-dimensionallandmark and configured to determine the largest continuous horizontalsurface as mentioned above and configured to store in the database thedetermined largest horizontal surface as part of the road network. Thesystem may be operative to implement a method for processing a3-dimensional landmark according to any aspect or example.

According to another example, a method for displaying route guidancerecommendations to a vehicle driver is provided. According to one step adriving route is determined, along which the user is moving.Furthermore, a road traffic area of the 3-dimensional landmark that islocated along the route is determined and the road traffic area of the3-dimensional landmark is marked with a predefined texture. Furthermore,3-dimensional route guidance information is displayed including a3-dimensional representation of at least a section of the route andincluding the 3-dimensional landmark with the marked road traffic areain the object. This displaying method uses the processed landmark thatwas processed as mentioned above to identify the road traffic area. Withthis method it becomes possible to include the landmark in the3-dimensional representation of the route guidance or walkingrecommendation as part of the recommended route.

The route guidance information may include a displayed line which thevehicle driver or pedestrian should follow, the line including themarked road traffic area of the 3-dimensional landmark.

Furthermore, a navigation system is provided providing route guidancerecommendations. The navigation system containing a navigation unitconfigured to determine a route, the navigation system furthercontaining a database containing at least one data set containing the3-dimensional landmark and containing map data representing a roadnetwork used by a vehicle for driving or by the pedestrian for walking.The navigation system furthermore contains an image viewer configured todisplay 3-dimensional route guidance information including a3-dimensional representation of at least a section of the recommendedroute. The image viewer is configured to determine a road traffic areaof the 3-dimensional landmark is configured to mark the road trafficarea with a predefined texture and is configured to display the3-dimensional route guidance information including the 3-dimensionallandmark with the marked road traffic area. The image viewer candetermine the road traffic area simply by retrieving the information ofthe road traffic area from the information stored in connection with thedata set that is representing the 3-dimensional landmark.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The system may be better understood with reference to the followingdrawings and description. The components in the figures are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustratingthe principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, likereferenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout thedifferent views.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a processing system with which a roadtraffic area of a 3-dimensional landmark can be identified.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a navigation system that can use theinformation identified by the system of FIG. 1 to provide a3-dimensional driving recommendation including the 3-dimensionallandmark and its road traffic area.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart containing the steps for processing the3-dimensional landmark.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart containing the steps for providing3-dimensional driving recommendations including the landmark.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a 3-dimensional driving recommendationincluding the identified road traffic area of the landmark.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a 3-dimensional landmark for which the roadtraffic area has been identified.

FIG. 7 is an example schematic of a vehicle navigation system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the paragraphs that follow, examples of the invention will bedescribed in connection with a vehicle user driving in a vehicle.However, it should be understood that the invention may also be appliedto a pedestrian who is walking, or in other scenarios such as electroniccity guides, route guidance for bicycles or other recreation activities,or similar.

FIG. 1 shows a processing system 10 with which it is possible toidentify a road traffic area of a data set of a landmark providing a3-dimensional representation of a real world object. This system 10 maycontain a database 11 where data sets containing the 3-dimensionallandmarks are stored. The landmark may be any one of a number ofdifferent landmarks, such as a 3-dimensional representation of the TowerBridge in

London or the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco or any other objectthat forms part of a road network used by vehicles for driving. Thedatabase 11 may furthermore contain map data with a road network. Aprocessing unit 12 can process the 3-dimensional landmarks stored in thedatabase 11 to identify the part of the 3-dimensional landmark thatcorresponds to the road surface.

Thus, the processing unit 12 is able to determine from the 3-dimensionalrepresentation of the landmark the part of the object that describes theroad surface. The 3-dimensional landmark contained in database 11 may beprovided as a triangulated geometry with an array of vertices, normalvectors, texture coordinates and triangle faces which are present asindices to the arrays. A data set containing a 3-dimensional landmarkcontains the information needed to display a 3-dimensionalrepresentation of the landmark. The processing unit 12 determines thefaces of the data set which represent road surfaces. The processing unit12 may compare the normal vectors of each face and searches for thelargest continuous horizontal face. In this context, the processing unit12 searches for the normal vectors having a vertical upward orientationwhich form a continuous horizontal surface. In one example, the data setis processed from the top end to the bottom end, meaning that, in the3-dimensional representation, the faces of the object which are locatedat the upper end of the object are processed first. If the landmark is abridge, this approach helps to correctly identify the upper surface.

Referring to FIG. 6, a 3-dimensional landmark 60 is shown, which showsthe data set containing the data needed to display a 3-dimensionalrepresentation of the landmark. In the example shown in FIG. 6, thelandmark has four upright columns 61. When the data set shown in FIG. 6is processed as mentioned above by determining the largest continuoushorizontal surface. The largest continuous horizontal surface (thehedged area) 62 is identified. This surface 62 represents the roadtraffic area used by the vehicle for driving.

Referring back to FIG. 1, when the processing unit 12 has identified thelargest continuous horizontal surface of the 3-dimensional landmark, itstores the information of the surface as a road traffic area. Theinformation is stored linked to the data set in such a way that anavigation system 20, such as the system as shown in FIG. 2, can use theidentified information to provide a 3-dimensional representation of adriving recommendation.

The navigation system shown in FIG. 2 contains a navigation unit 21which determines a route to a desired destination that may be input by auser of the navigation system 20 via an input unit 22. The way in whichthe navigation unit 21 calculates a route to a desired destination isknown to the skilled person and will not be explained in further detail.The navigation system furthermore contains a database 23 in which thedata sets containing the 3-dimensional landmarks are stored togetherwith the information about the road traffic area as identified asdiscussed above in connection with FIG. 1. The database 23 furthermorecontains the map data needed to calculate and display a route to adesired destination. An image viewer 24 generates displayed informationto be displayed on a display 25. The image viewer may generate3-dimensional route guidance information where a section of therecommended route is shown in a 3-dimensional representation.

In FIG. 5, a part of a driving route is shown in a 3-dimensionalrepresentation. As shown in FIG. 5, the image viewer can retrieve, fromthe database and from a data set showing landmark 50, the road trafficarea 51. The image viewer furthermore indicates a line 52 and 53,indicating the recommended route to the driver. As can be seen from FIG.5, the identified road traffic area 51 can then be displayed as part ofthe line representing the route. The road traffic area can be displayedwith a special road texture, the texture of the road traffic area 51 canbe the same as the texture for the parts of the route 52 and 53, andhowever, it is also possible that a different texture is used fordisplaying the driving recommendation as shown in the example of FIG. 5.

It should be understood that the systems shown in FIG. 2 may containadditional components not shown. Furthermore, the components shown maybe incorporated in fewer components or more components than shown inFIGS. 1 and 2. The components shown may be incorporated by software orby hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In FIG. 3, an example method to process the 3-dimensional landmark toidentify the road traffic area of the landmark is shown. The methodstarts in step 31. In step 32, the data set is provided to theprocessing unit. In step 33, the largest horizontal continuous surfaceis determined. One possibility to determine the horizontal surface wasdescribed above by identifying the normal vectors having a verticalupright orientation and by identifying the corresponding faces whichbuild a continuous horizontal surface. However, it should be understoodthat any other method might be used to identify in the data set of the3-dimensional landmark the largest continuous horizontal surface. Whenthe surface has been identified, this surface is stored in step 34 asthe road traffic area used by a vehicle for driving. This informationmay be stored as an attribute of the data set of the 3-dimensionallandmark. The method ends in step 35.

In FIG. 4, the steps are shown of an example of how the informationobtained with the processing of FIG. 3 can be used by the navigationsystem 20 as shown in FIG. 2. The method starts in step 41. In step 42,the driving route is determined. The determined driving route can eitherbe a driving route calculated to a desired destination, however, it isalso possible that the driver did not input a desired destination butsimply used the navigation system to display the currently used route,such as to warn the driver of traffic congestions displayed on thedisplay together with the current position of the vehicle. In step 43,it is determined whether a 3-dimensional landmark that is part of thedriving route is located on the current driving route. If this is thecase, the road traffic area stored in connection with the data set asexplained above is retrieved in step 44 and the road traffic area ismarked with a predefined texture in step 45. In step 46, the3-dimensional driving recommendation is displayed as a 3-dimensionalroad map. If the 3-dimensional landmark is located on the route, the3-dimensional landmark is displayed together with the road traffic areaas shown in FIG. 5. If it is determined in step 43 that no landmark islocated along the route, the 3-dimensional driving recommendation isdisplayed by simply displaying a 3-dimensional view of the road map. Themethod ends in step 47.

FIG. 7 is an example of a navigation system 100. In addition to one ormore inputs 102 and one or more outputs 104, the navigation system 100may include a processor 110, a memory 120, software 130, and aninterface 140. The navigation system 100 may include analog signalprocessing and digital signal processing capability.

The processor 110 may include one or more devices capable of executinginstructions to perform one or more operations within the navigationsystem 100. In FIG. 7, the processor 110 is incorporated into thenavigation system 100. The processor 110 may be one or more generalprocessors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA),server computers, networks, digital circuits, analog circuits,combinations thereof, or other now known or later developed devices foranalyzing and processing digital and analogue data. The processor 110may operate in conjunction with a software program, such as instructionsor code and data stored in the navigation system 100.

The processor 110 may be coupled with memory 120, or memory 120 may be aseparate component. Software 130 may be stored in memory 120. Memory 120may include, but is not limited to, computer readable storage media suchas various types of volatile and non-volatile storage media, includingrandom access memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory,electrically programmable read-only memory, electrically erasableread-only memory, flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media andthe like. The memory 120 may include a random access memory for theprocessor. Alternatively, the memory 120 may be separate from theprocessor, such as a cache memory of a processor, the system memory, orother memory. The memory may be an external storage device or databasefor storing recorded data. Examples include a hard drive, compact disc(“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card, memory stick, floppydisc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device, or any other deviceoperative to store data. The memory 120 may be operable to storeinstructions executable by the processor.

The navigation system 100 may have an interface 140. The interface 140may include knobs, switches, sliding components, buttons, a mouse,keyboard, a display, a touch screen or other devices or mechanismscapable of receiving user inputs for adjusting, modifying or controllingone or more features of the navigation system 100 and providing outputssensed by a user. The interface 140 may be used to manipulate one ormore characteristics, components, or features of the navigation system100. For example, the navigation system 100 may include a slider which,when moved, modifies the volume for one or more of the received signalsprocessed by the console. In another example, the interface 140 mayinclude a knob, that when turned, modifies the gain applied by one ormore amplifiers in the navigation system 100. In still another example,the navigation system 100 may be a data input location displayed in adisplay and a corresponding data input device in which parameters, suchas a gain, a threshold, or any other parameter may be entered by a userof the navigation system 100.

The functions, acts, tasks, methods, and/or components described hereinmay be performed or represented by a programmed processor executinginstructions stored in memory. The functions, acts or tasks may beindependent of the particular type of instruction set, storage media,processor or processing strategy and may be performed by software,hardware, integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and the like,operating alone or in combination. Likewise, processing strategies mayinclude multiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and the like.A processor may be configured to execute the software.

While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it willbe apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many moreembodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of theinvention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except inlight of the attached claims and their equivalents.

We claim:
 1. A method for processing by a processor a 3-dimensionallandmark providing a 3-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensionalreal world object located at a predefined geographic location, themethod comprising the steps of: providing a data set containing the3-dimensional landmark, determining by a processor a largest continuoushorizontal surface of the 3-dimensional landmark, and storing thedetermined largest horizontal surface as road traffic area of a roadnetwork used by a user when moving on the 3-dimensional real worldobject.
 2. The method for processing a 3-dimensional landmark accordingto claim 1, where the data set comprises an array of vertices definingdifferent faces of the real world object and normal vectors for thedifferent faces, where the largest continuous horizontal surface isdetermined by: comparing by the processor normal vectors of thedifferent faces and by identifying among the normal vectors of the3-dimensional landmark, first normal vectors that have a verticalorientation and that represent neighboring horizontal faces, andidentifying the horizontal faces belonging to the identified firstnormal vectors, the horizontal faces belonging to the identified firstnormal vectors representing the largest horizontal surface.
 3. Themethod for processing a 3-dimensional landmark according to claim 2,where the first normal vectors are identified by identifying among thenormal vectors, the normal vectors that have a vertical upwardorientation.
 4. The method for processing a 3-dimensional landmarkaccording to claim 2, where the 3-dimensional landmark has a bottom anda top end in the vertical direction, where the data set is processedfrom the top to the bottom end to identify the largest continuoushorizontal surface.
 5. The method for processing a 3-dimensionallandmark according to claim 1, where the 3-dimensional landmark is abridge.
 6. The method for processing a 3-dimensional landmark accordingto claim 1, where the determined largest horizontal surface is stored asthe road traffic area of the road network used by a vehicle for driving.7. A system configured to process a 3-dimensional landmark providing a3-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional real world objectlocated at a predefined geographic location, the system comprising: adatabase comprising at least one data set containing the 3-dimensionallandmark and containing map data representing a road network, an imagedata processing unit in communication with the database and configuredto determine a largest continuous horizontal surface of the3-dimensional landmark and configured to store in the database thedetermined largest horizontal surface as road traffic area of a roadnetwork used by a user for moving on the 3-dimensional real worldobject.
 8. The system according to claim 7, where the data set comprisesan array of vertices defining different faces of the real world objectand normal vectors for the different faces, and where the image dataprocessing unit is configured to determine the largest continuoushorizontal surface by: comparison of the normal vectors of the differentfaces and by identification among the normal vectors of the3-dimensional landmark, first normal vectors that have a verticalorientation and that represent neighboring horizontal faces, andidentification of the horizontal faces belonging to the identified firstnormal vectors, the horizontal faces belonging to the identified firstnormal vectors representing the largest horizontal surface.
 9. Theprocessing system according to claim 8, where the image data processingunit is configured to identify the first normal vectors byidentification, among the normal vectors, the normal vectors that have avertical upward orientation.
 10. The processing system according toclaim 8, where the 3-dimensional landmark has a bottom and a top end inthe vertical direction, and where the image data processing unit isconfigured to process the data set from the top to the bottom end toidentify the largest continuous horizontal surface.
 11. The processingsystem according to claim 7, where the 3-dimensional landmark is abridge.
 12. The processing system according to claim 7, where the imagedata processing unit is configured to store the determined largesthorizontal surface as road traffic area of a road network used by avehicle for driving.
 13. A method for displaying route guidancerecommendations to a user of a navigation system, the method comprisingthe steps of: determining a route by a processor along which the user ismoving, determining a road traffic area by a processor of a3-dimensional landmark providing a 3-dimensional representation of a3-dimensional real world object located at a predefined geographiclocation along the route, marking by a processor the road traffic areaof the 3-dimensional landmark with a predefined texture, and displayinga 3-dimensional route guidance information including a 3-dimensionalrepresentation of at least a section of the route and including the3-dimensional landmark with the marked road traffic area.
 14. The methodfor displaying driving recommendations to a user of a navigation systemaccording to claim 13, where the route guidance information includes adisplayed line which the user should follow, the line including themarked road traffic area of the 3-dimensional landmark.
 15. The methodfor displaying driving recommendations to a user of a navigation systemaccording to claim 13, where the driving recommendations are displayedto a vehicle driver, the navigation system determining a driving route.16. A navigation system providing route guidance recommendations to auser, the system comprising: a navigation unit configured to determine aroute, along which the user is moving, a database containing at leastone data set containing a 3-dimensional landmark providing a3-dimensional representation of a real world object located at apredefined geographic location and containing map data representing aroad network, an image viewer configured to display in a display3-dimensional route guidance information including a 3-dimensionalrepresentation of at least a section of the route, where the imageviewer is configured to determine a road traffic area of the3-dimensional landmark located along the route, is configured to markthe road traffic area of the 3-dimensional landmark with a predefinedtexture and is configured to display the 3-dimensional route guidanceinformation including the 3-dimensional landmark with the marked roadtraffic area.
 17. The navigation system providing drivingrecommendations according to claim 16, where the image viewer isconfigured to determine the road traffic area of the 3-dimensionallandmark by retrieval of the road traffic area stored in connection withthe data set containing the 3-dimensional landmark from the data set.18. The navigation system providing driving recommendations according toclaim 16, where the navigation unit is configured to determine a drivingroute for a vehicle.